Financial expert, Bismarck Rewane, has said that a plan unveiled by the Central Bank of Nigeria to get banks recapitalised is a good idea.
Although he said details of how to get it done had not been given, he noted that an increase in the muscles of the banks would make them more competitive.
Speaking on Channels TV News at 10 on Monday, he said, “It is a good thing because banks have to be competitive and play in the regional space.”
His analysis of circumstances, projections and socio-economic realities in the past five years threw up some mixed indixes but he believes that, on the whole, the financial regulators had not done badly.
According to him, prices of a good number of commodities, which went up during recession, had considerably come down.
For instance, he noted that the price of garri had gone down while those of beans and tomatoes had escalated.
Unveiling a five-year plan on Monday, the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, pledged to reposition Nigerian banks through recapitalisation during his second term.
Emefiele made the promise in Abuja on Monday during a press briefing on his policy road map for the next five years as governor of the CBN.
He said that recapitalisation of Nigerian banks was long overdue because it was done last in 2004 by Prof. Charles Soludo, a former governor of the apex bank.
“We will pursue the programme of recapitalisation of our banks in the next five years to ensure they are among the top 500 in the world.
“It is Soludo that did the last recapitalisation of banks in 2004 from two billion naira to N25 billion.
“If you relate N25 billion to present exchange rate, you realise is lower than 75 million dollars.
“The then recapitalisation has been weakened and there is need to recapitalise and reposition the Nigerian banks,” he said.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, Emefiele also said in the next five years, the CBN under his leadership would work with deposit money banks to enable Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have access to credit.
He said that MSMEs constituted about 90 per cent of businesses in the country, hence the need for this group to have access to credit facilities.
According to him, this group of businesses are essential to the growth of the country’s economy.
Emefiele also pledged to ensure lower lending rates by banks during his second term.
